We are a outdoor trail through a corn field (maze is non haunted....trail is NOT a maze). We had always started out slow first few spots easing people into the mood then saving the shocks for later. Well just curious...did I make a mistake this year? We are still starting in vortex tunnel but immediately they will be under Nurse Kratchets care going through the Ugly TOTS Nursery with a scare ands immeiately into next hallway where the double door "breakthru" (believe Pale Night) zombies spray them from head shots....poision props new Torso drop reacher will immediately come from above after 1st blast....and the poision drop portrait zombie will come from a side wall. Too much to start out with???

I think it completely depends on how the rest of the trail plays out....if you nail them that much at the beginning they may get their hopes up that it's going to keep that pace throughout. Now if the rest of the trail is just as good as the beginning then I think your fine...but if it kinda drops off as the trail winds down then you may have some complainers - but who knows, i've always ramped up from beginning to end.....maybe your way could work just as well, breaking them in the beginning then they are on edge throughout.

Is the on edge after being attacked from above, front, and side all at once too much bang at first thing....and then they EXPECT all of it to be several things all happening at once. Grand finale will be similar. Along the way will be everyones favorite Hollywood bad guys, gargoyle Shock, chain saw maniac, mask shack, snake shack, the scare crow, corn reaper and more... and other animatronics. Might pop the poision portrait dropper out and stick farther along in one of the shacks.

I think as long as your able to keep a similar pace throughout the trail you should be fine, like I said the only issue I could see would be if the rest of the trail paled in comparison to the beginning - people tend to remember that last thing that hit them and is generally what they talk about....but if your whole trail is as good as the beginning then I doubt you have anything to worry about.

Here's a snippet I stole that's advice I've heard over and over when writing suspense:

"When writing suspense, start slowly, subtly; give yourself somewhere to build. If you pull out all the stops at the beginning, you'll have no-where to go; worse still, your reader will turn numb to the nuance you are trying to create."

But I'm also a firm believer that there is no single magic formula for inducing fear. I'd love to hear how it turns out once you get back customer feedback.

Its my firm belief that you need to build the scare as you go. The further along they travel the intensity must rise. If you start out with high intensity then you must increase it as they travel through to the end......

Anything less would just make them bored and not have a good experience.....

I agree about first and last. Best scare scene is at the end, second best is the first. Anticipation on first sets thought and puts them on edge, making lesser scares even better, building to better, better, then BOOM, hit them with the big one to send them away. They will tell people how it starts out scary and ends great. But, that is just my opinion.